Tori Short Story 1 - FOOD FIGHT
by ShadowBat48
Summary: Tori is home for the weekend, so is Tim and they are both down in the dumps about college work. Damian is flustered about his own unintentional botched assignment. Once dinner starts though, all is to blame for an impromptu good old fashioned food fight to forget all the stress! First of many Tori Short Stories!


A/N: As I promised a one shot for you lovely fans! Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Enjoy!

* * *

Tori sat slumped in her seat at the dining table waiting for everyone to come in and sit down. She was home, at Wayne Manor, for the weekend. It had been a tough week. Tori was taking a biology course and she had to dissect a frog…a _frog._ With a _scalpel,_ tweezers and plastic aprons. Tim was thankfully in that class since Stephanie opted to take Chemistry. Tori had flat out refused to dissect the frog. Tim understood…their professor on the other hand…no dice. She had till the end of this week to finish the lab, if she didn't, she'd fail the lab which was not good in college, not good at all.

It wasn't as if she could _tell_ the professor why she didn't want to dissect the frog. You can't just go up to any old professor and say 'I can't dissect this frog because I know exactly what if feels like to be cut open and picked and prodded at and then sewed up like nothing had happened. I know what it feels like to be used for 'science' I knew what it feels like to be constantly experimented on and used against my will.' They wouldn't believe you or they'd send you to Arkham. She'd give anything to be able to tell the truth for once, something she'd rather do from now on since she'd lied about not going after Mac when Bruce had left his file up on the computer, but it was hard. It was so very hard because she had to lie every day. No one, not even her friend Jenna knew about why she really disappeared and people only knew what the news told everyone about her first abduction by Mac. So there was no one to tell the truth too. Life sucked sometimes.

Tori tapped her fingers against the wooden oak table, wondering whether she was too early to sit down. It didn't really matter, Bruce was staying late a work that day so it was just her, Tim and Damian. Damian absolutely despised school so he was grumpy all the time. He went nonetheless. Tori believed he secretly liked going to school, he just acted like he didn't, not just to get attention, but so that his father wouldn't be right when he told Damian he would like the Academy. Finally Tim came in and took his seat. He slumped over as well, resting his head on his hand,

"School's got you in the dumps too?" Tori asked,

"Yeah. Term paper for an English seminar class,"

"What about it?"

"I have no freaking clue what to write about…on top of that I only read half the book and it's due on Wednesday,"

"I have that dissection lab due on Friday that I am not comfortable doing and if I don't do it I fail the class,"

"Usually professors are understanding about that, why not this time?" Tori made a face,

"I might have refused to do the last one as well…I think I pushed to hard,"

"I don't really know what to say. No one knows you're a Talon and no one actually knows what happened to you with Mac…there's no way out for you,"

"Don't remind me," Tori said, slumping further down and resting her head on her arms in total defeat. Stomping feet pounded into the room and the chair to Tori's left was yanked back aggressively,

"Hello Damian," Tim said mutely,

"Drake. Crowne," Damian muttered,

"What's got you in the dumps?" Tori asked, turning her head to face the almost twelve year-old while remaining on her arms,

"I am nowhere in the dumps Crowne," Damian said, an angry expression on his face,

"Are you sure? Your face is more pinched than usual,"

"Shut the fuck up!" Damian growled,

"Two dollars to the swear jar Master Damian," Alfred said as he walked in with their food. Damian muttered harshly under his breath as he took his plate from Alfred and set it down before helping himself to the pot of mashed potatoes Tim had placed for Alfred. It was roasted chicken night, with the skin nice and crispy, no one in the family could resist that chicken. Tori wondered why Stephanie wasn't over for it, then she remembered that her friend was volunteering at the hospital with her mother. The vegetable was green beans, not Tori's favorite, but still delicious. Everyone started to serve themselves,

"Drake! Quit hogging the chicken!" Damian snapped,

"Enough out of you two!" Alfred ordered, "Pass the pots around. I must go help Master Dick with patrol coordination since it is only him and Miss Barbara out for tonight—,"

"—and Jason," Tori added as she scooped up some potatoes for her plate,

"—And Master Jason," Alfred amended, "I trust I can leave you three here without the occurrence of a catastrophe?"

"Of course Alfred," Tori said, "We're not five," she looked at Tim and Damian pointedly, she got glares in return. Alfred left and the three started to eat in silence, moping about their assignments on their own until Damian finally said something,

"I got an F on an assignment," Tori and Tim looked over at him, spoons and forks halfway to their mouths,

"What assignment?" Tori finally asked,

"It was an in class essay. I had been out the day we went over the section of the book due to an encounter with Killer Croc a few days before," he muttered, poking his potatoes around his plate. Tori winced, she remembered that night. She was still not allowed in the field but she'd been in the cave practicing when Dick and Jason raced in the cave Damian being carried between them. Four broken ribs, a sprained ankle and a ton of sewage water thrown up later, he was deemed stable,

"Who is your teacher?" Tori asked,

"Mrs. Durbyfiend," Tori and Tim groaned,

"She's the worst,"

"The absolute worst,"

"Gave me a C because I forgot to italicize the title of the book we read, once. ONCE!" Tori complained,

"She gave me a C because I forgot to give my ESSAY its own TITLE!" Tim cried, "Its own TITLE!"

"What essay needs its own title?" Damian asked,

"Well…actually a lot of them…but I was in sixth grade and thought it was outrageous,"

"Wait, since when did you two get Cs?" Damian asked, "You were straight A students all eight years you were at the Academy…even _you_ who _died_ senior year!" Tori tried not to wince at the mention of her own death, but it probably failed because Tim glared at Damian,

"No need to bring that up," he hissed, Damian just rolled his eyes,

"It's fine, and Damian, we got all As because that one F only counted for that assignment. In the whole picture that one F doesn't really matter,"

"That doesn't mean you just slack off though," Tim said, unhelpfully,

"Shut it Drake!" Damian snapped, using his spoon to fling potato at him. The glob hit her brother square in the face,

"Hey! You're _so_ going to get it!" Tim yelled, grabbing a fist full of green beans from the tray and throwing them at the kid. Damian growled,

"Whoa you two stop this—," Tori started but stopped as Damian tried to throw another glob of potatoes, Tim had other plans because he slapped out at Damian's hand in an effort to deflect the attack. The potatoes sailed out of Damian's hand and straight in Tori's face. Everyone froze as Tori blinked through the mess of potatoes in her face. Both Tim and Damian had fists of food and were frozen mid-throw at each other, but they were staring at Tori, waiting to see how she would react. She tossed down her silverware cleared the potatoes from her face and stood up, her chair scrapping loudly on the wooden floor and ignoring the piece of potato-ed hair dangling in her face,

"Oh. It. Is. SO. On," she said dead serious. All chaos started again. Potatoes and chicken flew through the air and green beans were tossed like throwing darts. Chairs were toppled, the drapes were covered in grimy food sludge lines and Tim ended up just launching himself at Damian over the dining table. None of them knew why they were even continuing this food war, they just knew it was fun and made them forget about their problems…plus, they were able chaotic and childish for once in a long long time.

Unfortunately their war ended when Alfred walked through the doorway to find Tim and Damian rolling on the ground covered in food while Tori stood above them, holding the potato pot, tossing the mush at them yelling,

"Fight ingrates fight!" Chairs were on their sides and the potted plants were plastered in numerous amounts of food,

 _"MY WORD!"_ Alfred cried. All three froze again, glancing at each other before looking over at Alfred who stared at the messy dining room he worked so hard to keep clean everyday. The two boys scrambled to their feet and stood with their hands behind their back, dripping in mashed potatoes and buttery green bean goo while Tori shoved the pot behind her back and smiled sweetly at Alfred.

Everyone stood in silence for a while, which made Tori nervous. Alfred was just standing there, staring at the huge mess they'd just made…it would be quite impressive if it didn't mean they were about to be in SO much trouble. Slowly, very slowly Tori could see Alfred's face turn very very red. It didn't help that Titus nosed his way through the swinging door from the kitchen and started scarfing up all the floor food,

"All of you are going to clean this mess up, right all the chairs and send the drapery off to be dry-cleaned this instant before cleaning the room until it is spotless and then you will all be unburdening the plants I try so very hard to keep clean of food, weeds and bugs," the butler said so calmly it was terrifying, "I will inform Master Bruce of this…catastrophe…immediately," he added, giving Tori a pointed look. With that the butler turned on his heel and left the room. Everyone let out a sigh of relief,

"That was downright terrifying," Tim said finally, "I've only ever seen him like that twice…now three times in my life,"

"I've never seen him turn such a shade of red before," Damian admitted, from where he stood by Titus with wide eyes, holding the mutt by his collar to keep him from eating the food,

"I don't remember ever seeing him get completely red or mad like that before," Tori said, putting the pot back down on the table, "Do you really think he'll tell Bruce?"

" _Of course_ he'll tell Bruce," Tim said, "It's the only way we'll actually clean this mess up,"

"Believe it or not, we do not know how to domestically clean up after ourselves Crowne, and I don't believe you do either,"

"Okay somewhat true, I mean we do clean our rooms…so where do we start?" The three of them stared at the messy room before, in one voice, shouting,

 _"ALFRED!"_ the all burst out laughing, even Damian, as soon as their echo died down.

By the time they cleaned up the dining room with Alfred's instruction and to his satisfaction, they all drifted upstairs to clean themselves off and get some well deserved rest. Afterall, Tim had a paper to write, Tori had a dissection to mentally prepare herself for and Damian had to read the chapters for his essay re-write. Work may be tough and they may be almost adults, but a little bit of play and fun could go a long way.

* * *

A/N: Okay that was the first of many! Tell me what you thought of it! And REVIEW!


End file.
